The invention relates to a connector comprising a mechanism for connecting to and disconnecting from a complementary connector. The invention relates also to a connector assembly comprising such a connector.
Such a connector can be used, for example, for military, aeronautical or aerospace applications, or even medical applications.
Generally, a connector assembly comprising two complementary connectors, namely a male connector and a female connector, is commonly used for a removable electrical connection to an electrical circuit, such as a printed circuit.
Typically, the male connector comprises a plurality of connection spindles arranged in one or more rows. The female connector, for its part, comprises female electrical contacts capable of receiving the male connection spindles and connected to electrical conductors to establish an electrical contact.
Because of the friction forces that exist between the female contacts and the male connection spindles, in order to assist a user in separating the two female and male connectors, it is known practice to provide an ejection mechanism movably mounted on one of the connectors.
According to one known solution, the disconnection mechanism comprises two ejection levers that can be actuated manually, and mounted on the end lateral walls of one of the connectors, such as the male connector.
Such a lever is, for example, formed substantially in an “L” shape. The lever has a first extension protruding from the shell of the connector bearing the disconnection mechanism, such as the male connector, in the rest position, that is to say when the two complementary connectors are connected. The lever has a second extension forming a lever foot and extending into a cavity of the male connector comprising the connection spindles.
When a lever is actuated manually by a rotational movement, the lever foot pushes on the complementary connector, such as the female connector, this complementary connector then being displaced vertically by the foot of the ejector-forming lever in order to separate the female connector from the male connector.
According to this solution, the travel of the lever is limited by a stop on an internal wall of the connector, such as the male connector, bearing the ejection levers.
However, with such a solution, the movement of the lever foot pushing on the complementary connector is rotational, such that the force applied to the complementary connector tilts during the actuation of the lever. The disconnection with such a tilted force cannot be accurate in the plug-in zones of the electrical contacts.
Furthermore, such a disconnection mechanism is not designed to lock the connection between the two connectors in the connection position.
Furthermore, according to this known solution, when the two connectors are coupled, the actuation levers occupy a not-inconsiderable space behind the shell of the connector bearing the ejection mechanism. This bulk of the connector bearing the ejection mechanism does not therefore allow, if the latter is mounted on an electrical circuit board, for the arrangement of other electrical and/or electronic components, such as resistors for example, in this space occupied by the actuation levers.